Student Avoiding Icy Sidewalk Hit by Car

A 17-year-old Fairfield high school student is hospitalized with a fractured hip after she was hit by a car while avoiding an icy, snow-covered sidewalk on her way to school Friday morning, according to police.

Police said the teen, a student at Fairfield Ludlowe High School, was crossing Mill Plain Road just before 7:30 a.m. when she was struck.

Officers arrived to find her lying in the road with pain in her right hip. She told them she had crossed the road there because the sidewalks hadn’t been shoveled, according to police.

Authorities released photos of the snow-covered sidewalk in front of 745 Unquowa Road, which the student had avoided.

Fairfield police said the property owner will be fined $99 for failing to shovel the sidewalk and will also have to shell out for the man power and machinery the Department of Public Works used to clear the area. Lt. James Perez said the cost could approach $1,000.

The driver who hit the teen told investigators she didn't see the girl until it was too late, according to police.

Traffic was backed up at the time, the driver said, and the girl ran between two SUVs that were stopped in traffic and darted right in front of the car that hit her.